Catalogue view

Owned by MS (Unlicensed)
Jan 17, 2023
5 min read

Introduction to the catalogue

The catalogue enables you to offer your users a selection of VM templates so they can deploy VMs (with self-service). 

To access the catalogue, click the disk stack Catalogue button on the main menu.

Privileges: Access Catalogue view

 For each datacenter or public cloud region, the platform displays the VM templates available to your enterprise. 

Manage the catalogue using the API

 

API feature

This feature is available in the API. For datacenters, see DatacenterRepositoriesResource.
For datacenters and public cloud regions, see TemplateDefinitionsResource and TemplateDefinitionListsResource

 

Catalogue concepts

Concept

Description

Concept

Description

VM template

To deploy a VM, the platform uses a VM template and a hardware specification. A VM template consists of a VM template definition and VM template disk files, which include the system disk and any auxiliary disks. 

VM template definition

The VM template definition includes information about the disks, the hardware, and product (additional metadata: name, description, icon, category, installed software). When you load a VM template definition and disk files into the Catalogue, the platform generates a VM template based on the information in the VM template definition. A VM template definition can only include one virtual system, but you can create systems with multiple VMs using virtual appliances within Abiquo. In a private cloud datacenter, you can create VM templates from a local OVA, or one or more disk files and definition (details or OVF).

Instance templates

Abiquo Instances are templates created from copies of VM disks. You can use instances just like any other template for creating new VMs. In a datacenter, an instance is linked to the original master template. The master template is marked with an M symbol in the top left-hand corner. An instance is marked with an S symbol in the top left-hand corner.

V2V conversion

In a private cloud datacenter, Virtual-to-Virtual Conversion (V2V) is a process that runs to convert a new template into the default format for each hypervisor in the platform. It runs when users download VM templates, create VM instances, or upload new templates. If a hypervisor supports more than one format, then templates that are not supported by the platform for this hypervisor will be converted to the default format. Other formats will not be converted. If there are no hypervisors present, it will convert templates into the default base formats of all hypervisors. 

Owner enterprise

The enterprise in which a VM template was created

Standard template

In private cloud datacenters, a standard template has disks that will deploy to the hypervisor datastore

Persistent template

In private cloud datacenters, a persistent template has disks on external storage volumes

 

Catalogue symbols

The template icons in the Catalogue are marked with the following symbols.

Template type

Symbol

Description

Template type

Symbol

Description

Shared template

This template may be used by all enterprises listed in the template's scopes.

Main template

In private cloud, this template has secondary templates or instance templates. Click on the template to display the instance template panel.

Secondary template

In private cloud, this template is a secondary template (or instance template). It is a copy of the selected disks of a VM created from the main template. You can create instances from VMs in the Virtual appliances view.

Deleted template

Also called an Unavailable template. In private cloud, this template has one or more disks missing from the Catalogue filesystem. In public cloud, the template is no longer available

Failed template

In private cloud, this template has a disk file that was not properly created.

 

VM template states

The platform derives template states from the states of the disks in the template. If any of the disks is in an error state, the template will also be in an error state. You can delete individual disks that are in an error state, but a template must always have one disk, even if it is in an error state. 

Template disks can be in the following states.

  • IN PROGRESS: The platform has registered the template and is uploading or downloading a disk file to the Apps library

  • DONE: The template is complete, although conversions to other hypervisors may not be present yet

  • FAILED: the disk was not properly created because of an issue during its creation

  • UNAVAILABLE:  the disk is defined in the template but not present in the Apps library. 

    • The platform will not allow an administrator to delete a template when it is used in VMs or has dependent instance templates. Instead, the platform will delete the template disk files to prevent further deploys. 

    • If an administrator replaces the disk file, then the platform makes the template available again.

The priority of the disk state in determining the template state is as follows: 1. In progress, 2.Failed, 3. Unavailable, 4. Done. For example, if a template has any failed disks, the template will also be in the failed state, even if any of its other disks are unavailable or done.

 

Template disk conversion states

In private cloud, the platform will automatically convert VM template disks to enable users to work with them on all available hypervisors. The state of a disk conversion does not affect the state of the template.

The possible states of conversions are:

  • ENQUEUED 

  • FINISHED

  • FAILED

To display the conversions of a template disk, edit the template, go to the Disks tab and select the disk.

 

Pages related to the catalogue

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